Scientific Methods

Sunday, March 12, 2006

PILTDOWN HOAX: COUNTING THE COSTS TO SCIENCE

"The fossil remains of early humans are exceptionally rare. Scientists trying to reconstruct the evolutionary history of our species often have to draw long, dotted lines between a few key fossils.

So introducing a bogus ancestor into our family tree can throw the entire study of human evolution off course. This is exactly what happened with the Piltdown skull, which was exposed as an elaborate hoax exactly 50 years ago this month."

NEANDERTHALS WERE CANNIBALS

"Gory evidence uncovered in France reveals that the early humans in theregion ate one another. Cheek muscles from children were filleted out,tendons were sliced and skulls were cracked to remove brains."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/462048.stm

"When you see some Neanderthals practising intentional burial andothers practising cannibalism, that is a clear indication of behaviourthat is multidimensional - a pattern that mirrors the behaviour of moremodern people" Professor Tim White, University of California Berkeley

KENYANTHROPUS PLATYOPS : AN ENTIRELY NEW BRANCH ON OUR FAMILY
TREE.

"Scientists have unearthed the remains of what they say is yet another new hominid, or human-like creature, in Kenya.

The discovery by Meave Leakey, of the National Museums of Kenya, and colleagues threatens to blur still further the already murky picture of man's evolution.

The find, made at Lomekwi on the western shore of Lake Turkana, includes the battered but almost complete skull and face of the hominid. The fossils were dug up from deposits which have been reliably dated to between 3.2 and 3.5 million years ago."

THE LAETOLI FOOTPRINTS

"The Laetoli footprints were discovered in 1976, not far from the village of Laetoli in a remote part of Tanzania. We tend to think that major scientific discoveries are made in laboratories by dull, plodding scientists with narrowly-focused minds and eyes, but the Laetoli discovery happened far differently. Two paleoanthropologists, in a group led by the famous anthropologist Mary Leakey, were horsing around, throwing elephant dung at each other while walking a familiar path back from the dig one day. After Andrew Hill dodged one well-aimed faecal projectile, he found himself face-down on the ground and staring at footprints fossilised in a layer of hardened volcanic mud. No one had noticed them before. Later excavation revealed an astonishing find that came to be known as the Laetoli footprints.

What makes these prints an almost unbelievable discovery are that not only are they clearly made by fully bipedal1 creatures, but are also almost indistinguishable from modern human footprints, despite being formed millions of years earlier than the earliest known fossilised human footprints.

The individual footprints are sufficiently well-formed and well-preserved to provide information on the soft tissues (skin and muscle) of their creators, yet even more interesting is the information determined about the skeletons of these upright-walking creatures. The toe pattern is much the same as the modern human foot - the toes are relatively short and the big toe is in line with the other toes. "

EUROPE'S SEVEN FEMALE FOUNDERS

"Everyone in Europe is descended from just seven women. Arriving at different times during the last 45,000 years, they survived wolves, bears and ice ages to form different clans that eventually became today's population.

These are the claims of Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University.

Calling them "The Seven Daughters of Eve", Professor Sykes has individually named them Ursula, Xenia, Tara, Helena, Katrine, Valda and Jasmine.

Professor Sykes arrived at his conclusion by studying mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down from mothers to children.

From 6000 random samples, and allowing for naturally occurring mutations, he established seven different clusters of DNA."

OUT OF AFRICA HYPOTHESIS: MORE EVIDENCE?

"There are two competing theories to explain how mankind spread across the globe. One suggests that between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago modern man (Homo sapiens) emerged from Africa to slowly populate the rest of the world, replacing any species of human that were already there. This is the Out of Africa hypothesis. The other theory suggests that modern humans arose simultaneously in Africa, Europe and Asia from one of our predecessors, Homo erectus, who left Africa about two million years ago."

AUSTRALIAN FOSSILS A CHALLENGE TO AFRICA THEORY

"Australian scientists say analysis of the oldest DNA ever taken from skeletal remains challenges the theory that all modern humans can trace their recent ancestry to Africa.

"The study is based on the 60,000-year-old so-called Mungo Man skeleton, which was unearthed in New South Wales in 1974, and nine other anatomically modern Australian individuals who lived 8-15,000 years ago."

LINK BETWEEN HOMO RUDOLFENSIS AND THE ORIGINAL H. HABILIS.

The remains of the 1.8-million-year-old hominid are said to rank among the best specimens yet discovered of the earliest members of our genus, Homo. This fossil provides a key anatomical link between H. rudolfensis and the original H. habilis.

PARASITES: EVIDENCE FOR EARLY HUMAN INTERACTIONS

"Some head lice infesting people today were probably spread to us thousands of years ago by an extinct species of early human, a genetics study reveals. It shows that when our ancestors left Africa after 100,000 years ago, they made direct contact with tribes of "archaic" peoples, probably in Asia. Lice could have jumped from them on to our ancestors during fights, sex, clothes-sharing or even cannibalism."

WHEN DID HOMINIDS CONTROL FIRE?

"Human-like species migrating out of their African homeland had masteredthe use of fire up to 790,000 years ago, the journal Science reports.The evidence, from northern Israel, suggests species such as Homoerectus may have been surprisingly sophisticated in their behaviour.

"Scientists have analysed the DNA of a third Neanderthal in an attempt to shed light on the genetic history of early humans. The results suggest that, like modern humans, Neanderthals expanded from a relatively small number of individuals."

NEANDERTHALS MATED WITH MODERN HUMANS

"A hybrid skeleton showing features of both Neanderthal and early modern humans has been discovered, challenging the theory that our ancestors drove Neanderthals to extinction. The skeleton of a young boy was found in Portugal.

Scientists say it shows for the first time that Neanderthals, who became extinct tens of thousands of years ago, mated with early members of our own species."

HAVE HUMANS STOPPED EVOLVING?

Some scientists now believe that human evolution has ceased, we are asadvanced as we're ever going to get. We have become so clever atadapting our environment to suit our needs that we no longer need toevolve; we simply invent tools to do new tasks for us.

HUMANS CAME CLOSE TO EXTINCTION

"A new hypothesis about recent human evolution suggests that we camevery close to extinction because of a "volcanic winter" that occurred71,000 years ago. Some scientists estimate that there may have been asfew as 15,000 humans alive at one time. The volcanic winter lasted aboutsix years. It was followed by 1,000 years of the coldest Ice Age onrecord."

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An introduction to research techniques, planning, execution, analyses, and presentation of information. Reading and writing skills and interpretation of data. Preparation of scientific research for publication. This part of the module counts 10 credits

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